HD Supply Utilities, North America's largest electric utilities distributor and Trilliant, a Smart Grid communications provider and leader in delivering solutions that enhance energy efficiency, utility operations, and renewable resource integration, today announced their Smart Grid communications pilot program with Victoria Electric Cooperative, in Victoria, Texas. The pilot program includes a deployment of Trilliant's multi-tier SecureMesh Smart Grid solution to deliver advanced utility services. Victoria Electric Cooperative covers 1,800 square miles located in Southeastern Texas and serves six counties with approximately 19,500 residential and 540 commercial and industrial customers.

"We felt strongly that the combination of HD Supply Utilities' installation services and Trilliant's multi-tiered SecureMesh technology would provide Victoria Electric Coop with a robust, high speed, low latency communications network that will serve as our Smart Grid foundation and meet AMI objectives," according to Blaine Warzecha, General Manager at Victoria Electric Cooperative. "Equally significant is the fact that we are implementing a solution that can grow to meet our future needs."

Victoria Electric's pilot program will be a 90-day test phase to designated locations in their service area. A successful implementation could mean a full rollout to their entire service territory. Initial applications will be to improve operational efficiency, provide interval data for Critical Peak Pricing (CPP) and Time-of-Use (TOU) rates, and enhance outage detection.

A key component in HD Supply Utilities' GridAdvance™ integrated, end-to-end Smart Grid solution, Trilliant's SecureMesh multi-tier architecture enables the two-way flow of data to integrate the utility's head-end systems with distribution, smart metering, and home devices. These sections of the grid correspond to communication tiers: a Wide Area Network (WAN) tier, which connects distribution devices and aggregates the Neighborhood Area Network (NAN) tier, which connects meters and aggregates the Home Area Network (HAN) tier, which connects in-home devices.

"The overriding benefits of Smart Grid communication networks, combined with the trend toward TOU rates and CPP solutions, are setting the stage for the implementations such as the one at Victoria -- implementations that require a multi-tier architecture requiring advanced WAN, HAN and NAN capabilities," according to Andy White, CEO at Trilliant. "We're proud to be involved in those efforts at Victoria Electric through our relationship with HD Supply Utilities."

"It's clear to us that rural electric co-ops are looking for an advanced Smart Grid solution that can grow as their utility initiatives evolve," said Geff Smith, Vice President, Automation, HD Supply Utilities. "Trilliant's multi-tier architecture approach to Smart Grid networks made the difference at Victoria Electric and we are looking forward to seeing their customers benefit from this solution."